[Comicsstudiessociety] (another) introduction

[Can Yalcinkaya]

Hi all,

It was lovely to see everybody's introductions, so I thought I'd introduce
myself as well. My interest in comics studies started as an undergraduate
student in Turkey in the early 2000s. I was part of a comics studies
mailing list, which led to two edited collections, *Cizgili Hayat
Kilavuzu* (2004)
and *Cizgili Kenar Notlari* (2005) both edited by Levent Cantek, as well as
a journal of comics studies called *Seruven* (Adventure), which lasted 10
issues between 2004 and 2007. I was a contributor to all three publications
and served as an editor in the last four issues of *Seruven*. In 2006, I
completed a master's thesis on two Turkish monthly comics anthologies and
their politics of subversion of the dominant culture through carnivalesque,
punk, underground themes and images.

I moved to Australia in 2007 and did a PhD in Media Studies (not on
comics), but continued to research comics on the side. Since 2013, I have
also started to develop a creative practice. I edited an anthology of
comics titled *Resist Comics: Scenes from the Gezi Resistance *(2015), in
response to the Occupy Gezi Park protests in Turkey. I contributed to
comics anthologies in Turkey and Australia, and made a series of mini
comics. I have an interest in using comics as a medium of research
communication and most of the comics I have produced are based on research.
My comic "*Homoti:* The Turkish Gay E.T. Remake" (published in *Sequentials
*in 2018) makes use of queer phenomenology and monster theory to analyse
the Turkish z-grade remake of *E.T. *in the context of the history of
LGBTQI communities and representation of gay men in Turkish cinema -
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.sequentialsjournal.net/issues/issue1.2/yalcinkaya.html__;!!KGKeukY!lbF4N_JcqsOIYHTSb4BEw-y9hhvnlZGoP4goskIPB83jc6JqoygyupnGRGN5-Fsm0uS-aU549Wn3$ 

As part of this interest to produce and promote comics-based
research/graphic scholarship, I became involved with the Graphic Social
Science Research Network, co-convened by Mark Carrigan and myself. However,
this network has largely been on hiatus for the last year or so -
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://medium.com/@GraphicSocSci__;!!KGKeukY!lbF4N_JcqsOIYHTSb4BEw-y9hhvnlZGoP4goskIPB83jc6JqoygyupnGRGN5-Fsm0uS-ae6puJ_V$  - if anyone would like to be involved and
help me re-activate it, please let me know.

I am currently employed as a program manager at Macquarie University in
Sydney, and my role does not involve research, however, I try to keep
active in this area. I have a few projects in various stages of
development. One major project underway is a series of events on the theme
of "Comics and Activism" which will take place at Macquarie University,
including two exhibitions, a symposium, a series of talks and workshops,
readings and a zine fair, all of which I am co-curating with Dr Justine
Lloyd (Department of Sociology, Macquarie University).

Last but not least, not comics-related, but I would like to invite you to
an online event, titled Vigil for the Smooth Handfish which will be
streamed on 22 November Sunday. The smooth handfish was a type of
bottom-dweller found off the coast of Tasmania, which became extinct in
2020. A group of academics and creatives have come together to remember
this strange fish and "contemplate loss, grief, the parameters of care, the
interconnectedness of conservation and radical hope, and 'collaborative
survival'." There is a fantastic line-up of videos from musicians, poets,
academics, artists and my contributions is a collaboration with author
Dorion Sagan, filmmaker Daz Chandler, artist Safdar Ahmed and psychedelic
musician Edwin Montgomery to create a short animated film, illustrating
Dorion Sagan's original poem "Smooth Handfish: A Eulogy" written for this
occasion. You can register through the Vigil for the Smooth Handfish
website to watch the streaming of this event:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.paralleleffect.com/vigil__;!!KGKeukY!lbF4N_JcqsOIYHTSb4BEw-y9hhvnlZGoP4goskIPB83jc6JqoygyupnGRGN5-Fsm0uS-aRGqzuhW$ 

I'll echo others and say that I hope to meet with the members of this list
in person at some point in the future.

All the best,
Can
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